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Here’s video of Assemblyman Richard Gottfried at a Wednesday-morning press conference pushing for action of his bill moving New York State to a single-payer health care system. More a rallying point than an actual legislative effort, the bill hasn’t made it to the floor of the Democratic-controlled Assembly for a vote since 1992; it’s never had a vote in the Senate.

Sen. Bill Perkins, who backs the measure in that chamber, called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to offer leadership, and pressed Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos — but not his Independent Dem partner in leadership Jeff Klein — to bring the bill forward.

Both lawmakers noted that while some might see the move to what advocates have often described as a “Medicare-for-all” system as radical, the steadily rising cost of health care has brought conditions to the sort of inflection point that has over the course of American history led to quantum leaps in policy — from the New Deal all the way back to the American Revolution itself.

Perkins said the push for a single-payer system was “as American as apple pie.”

Raise New York’s minimum wage to $17.30/hr., opt out of Medicaid’s acute care component and institute a single payor health care funding and payment stream for all using the Medicare model. Yes sir. That makes a great deal of sense because it gives the notion of work, any kind of work, the dignity it deserves and simplifies the complexities of a health care system that, today, has as its primary objective, work fare, rather than health care. Come on Andrew, show some political courage. Do it.

Do you want protection for the rest of your life without risk of losing your possessions? THEN WE NEED THE SINGLE-PAYER SYSTEM. We are the only pitiful souls who don’t have this peace of mind. PS: If you want to buy your own policy, go ahead, but many folks I know claim it’s a waste of money. My in-law’s major (life-saving) surgery cost approximately $125 with the National Health Service. Does that sound reasonable to you?

Obamacare, you know how well that’s going! Like you doctor? well you can’t have him/her. Like your premiums? Well they just quadrupled. You require immediate hospital care? Well the line begins way back there.

@ EriK & armyengineer12b – considering that Vermont’s program isn’t even scheduled to start operating until 2017, it may be a little premature to point out its failures. Especially when your source (un-biased, I’m sure) is relying almost exclusively on information from one of the three Democratic State Senators that opposed Act 48.
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@ billy – in a single-payer system, there would be no private health insurance. If you eliminate the insurance middle man, you also get rid of the hospital/doctor networks that dictate who your physician is, so you would be able to keep your current doctor.
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Presumably, the problem is that taxes would have to be raised to fund single-payer, as the Watchdog article points out. However, I would take a bump in taxes over paying through the nose for insurance premiums any day.

in a single-payer system, there would be no private health insurance. If you eliminate the insurance middle man, you also get rid of the hospital/doctor networks that dictate who your physician is, so you would be able to keep your current doctor
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Which explains why 50% of people who live in countries like Canada still buy private insurance… 35% of Canada’s HC spending is done through private insurance plans… single payer does SOOO well there.

Here we go again. Single payer health care is government controlled health care and no choices. How’s that working out in Canada? We have a government health care now it’s called medicare and medicaid. How is that working out. Vote all these people out this fall.

The health insurance industry in the USA is a mess. The only way to straighten it out is to simplify the system, which Obama Care fails to do because it is too complex for the average person to understand. We have there separate systems operating out of Washington (Medicaid, Medicare and Obama Care) plus private insurance and private pay.
Two of the government run systems need to be consolidated into the third. Take your pick.
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As for the Vermont single pay initiative….the legislator criticizing the current program, Rep Jim Condon, is basing his remarks on a study, supposedly done by a privately held health care consulting firm out of West Virginia that advices over 850 health care providers, nationally, on how to manage their health care systems. It doesn’t appear that anyone affiliated with Vermont’s government hired this company, Avelare, Inc,. to do this study, according to Google. Avelare, Inc. stands to lose lot of its consulting business if the Vermont effort is successful and other states follow their lead to create a simple, easy to run, single payor system for the payment of health care services in their states. BTW, Rep. Jim Condon, is running for re-election to the Vermont Legislature this fall, as a yellow-dog (conservative) Democrat in a district, outside of Burlington, that leans Republican. He is gonna make noise like this in the hopes he can garner some independent votes and steal some more from Republicans. But, in the absence of more information, I don’t think he knows what he is talking about.

Any smart person knows that single-payer health care is the left’s favored fallback as ObamaCare fails
I am taxed enough!!!
The government thinks they know whats best for everyone, all you have to do is look at the overall state of our country to know that our government doesnt know whats best for everyone…
Wake up people before it is to late…
Liberals = Americas demise
progressives are progressively destroying our country

Somehow, I don’t think pointing to Vermont as a “failure” of single payer is all that valid, given that they haven’t even implemented it yet.
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Like all change, there will be growing pains. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
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Additionally, since we’re the only industrialized nation without single payer, I think the evidence is pretty incontrovertible at this point that it can and does work, provided a society has the political will to implement it. 40 other nations have some form of nationalized health care. The debate is over on whether or not it works.

A modified single payer system could easily work and be better for everyone.

Here is my idea: Medicare for everyone. To pay for this employers and employees would each pay an increase in withholding taxes. The percent would be based on the type of injury and the risks associated with the profession. For example heavy machine operators would have a higher percent then office workers or retail. This would replace workers compensation for employers as well so a savings for the employer. Like Medicare a person would buy their own supplement to cover the 20% not covered by Medicare. This then allows insurance companies to sell supplements and not have the high risk of insuring those with cancer or other pre-existing conditions. Employers could offer to cover the supplement or offer to cover additional items not covered by Medicare. Unions could fight for additional benefits like eyeglasses, dental, or anything else not covered by Medicare. If a doctor accepts Medicare and is accepting new patients you have a doctor. For service providers they only need to keep up with Medicare rules. For property owners taxes would be less as all Medicaid people would be covered on the extended Medicare. Coverage would be on the National and not the State or Couny level. In general I think you could get benefits for the majority of people. You work you are covered. For disability claims you would have to be disabled according to Medicare / Social Security rules. In general only one set of rules, not one for each insurance company or plan. For those who are unable to work, if they qualify for Social Security Disability then the system would pay their costs. Maybe a 1% or portion of 1% national sales tax would be used to pay premiums on those who can not cover the cost or for those on unemployment. In general I think this would solve the property tax problem poorer communiities have when they have to cover their share of Medicaid. It covers all workers and since payroill taxes are already being collected changing the percentages would be easy to do. Since the insurance requires people to be working you would also cut down on the number of people working off the books.

Ah yes, the familiar retort from armyengineer12b et al blaming liberals for all of America’s problems, without giving any substantive commentary on the issue at hand.
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Liberals are responsible for great programs, like Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, the New Deal, the Great Society, the Civil Rights Act, etc.
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Clearly, hell-bent on destroying the country, one day at a time.

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